After a water leak damaged their home, Direct Line arranged successive temporary housing … over eight traumatic months
The text message told Aayan Mirza* that he had an hour to pack his family’s possessions and leave. They had been living in temporary accommodation funded by his insurer while it repaired the damage caused by a leak. But in the middle of a working day, the IT technician and his young family were forced by Direct Line to move to a hotel six miles from the children’s school and nursery.
A month later, it happened again. When repairs overran, they were given just two hours to move to another hotel, in a different town, this one nine miles from their home. Mirza’s wife, who doesn’t drive, had to make eight taxi rides a day for three weeks to ferry their son to school and back and their four-year-old daughter to afternoon nursery. She also had to give up her job indefinitely to care for their daughter, who has special needs and was unable to cope with the moves.